This invention relates generally to automated bag handling and filling machines, and particularly to an apparatus for transferring paper or plastic bags from a rotating supply carousel to a conveyor belt leading to a filling station.
Machines particularly designed for the task of hanging plastic or paper bags on a spout in an automated filling station are well known to the art, as are the various support devices used for supplying bags to the hanging machines from a bag magazine, tamping and weighing the contents of the bags, and conveying the filled bags to a sealing or loading station.
Improvements have been made both in the design of the bag magazines themselves, and the machines which remove individual bags from the magazines and transport them to a hanging machine or directly to a filling spout.
It has generally been accepted that for optimal performance, a single bag handling apparatus designed for use with a particular bag type or structure is best utilized, although many bag handling machines have incorporated some degree of adjustability or flexibility to accommodate bags of slightly varying size, weight, or material:
However, because of the vast differences in bag structures and the peculiar constraints of various bag hanging and filling machines, the rate at which bags are to be filled, the material being placed in the bags and the process used for filling, it is a common practice to design a complete bag handling facility including a magazine, transport mechanism, and bag hanging apparatus around a given filling machine and bag type:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,310,037 discloses a system of four rotating bag pickup and release mechanisms designed to remove a gussetted and valved bag from a magazine and transport the bag to a set of pinch rollers used in filling the bag. While disclosing the concept of a rotary bag delivery system, the apparatus described in the '037 patent is not suitable for use with varying types paper or plastic bags, is incapable of delivering those bags to a horizontal conveyer belt, and must function at a relatively high rate of speed to be operable.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,612,965 discloses an apparatus having a pivoting arm and suction grippers for folding the top edge of a bag away from a magazine such that the bag may be removed from the magazine by a pair of gusset grippers attached to a bag hanging mechanism, and a pivoted arm member and suction grippers to position the top portion of a flexible bag such that it may be gripped by a bag hanging mechanism. While disclosing the concept of employing a pivoting arm member and suction grippers to position the top portion of a flexible bag such that it may be gripped by a bag hanging mechanism, and a system which may be operated effectively at slower speeds, the apparatus described in the '965 patent does not serve to place the bag on a conveyor belt, does not function interchangeably with various plastic or paper bags, uses a specially designed magazine having narrower tolerances, and requires a more complex pneumatic control system and array of pivoting arms and movable parts.